How is it when we launch spacecraft out to orbit other planets or eventually to go to the moon, the craft don’t collide with all the space junk up there?

Question

The ISS is under constant threat of being destroyed by debris, so when we (eventually) launch astronauts to go to the moon or when we launched like Juno or New Horizons, how did they not get destroyed by the space junk?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Almost all large items are tracked (both intentionally places satellites and debris). There’s over 17000 items that are tracked, which helps avoid collisions.

Smaller items that cannot be tracked do pose a huge risk, and cause damage to satellites. Collisions occur relatively frequently, but don’t tend to cause horrific consequences yet – there’s a fear that the orbit may become impassable in future.